


Ikebana

by ka1t0uma61c1an



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 20:55:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9256898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ka1t0uma61c1an/pseuds/ka1t0uma61c1an





	

Besides once arranging coded messages in a flower shop window in Lightning Country in order to communicate with a paranoid contact, Kakashi has never seen the purpose of flower arrangements, not for birthdays or first dates or gravestones.

He’s seen plenty of arrangements over the years, even knows a little of ikebana from when he was four years old and the Academy was desperate to find something to teach him, even the kunochi arts, before the war got so bad a five year old genin was still a genin and needed in the field. Still, this might be the most interested in flowers he’s been in his life.

“It really catches your eye, doesn’t it,” Ino says cheerfully, stepping out of the shop. There’s a glint in her eye that says she’s scented a sale, but Kakashi can’t pull himself away.

It’s bright. Gaudy. Happy. Cheesy. Undeniable.

It’s a half-sphere of canary yellow carnations with two sunflowers for wide black eyes and a length of black pipe cleaner all arranged into a smiling face.

“Your ikebana teacher would prune you,” Kakashi says, speaking from experience. Ino’s face freezes in a smiling grimace and it’s good to know that Miwaka-sensei is still teaching.

It gets him in a twenty percent discount, so perhaps those classes weren’t a waste after all.

*

Some days Naruto wonders if he’s ever going to catch up. He’s been training with Lee on straight taijutsu, and he still can’t beat the other boy without using his Kyuubi-enhanced endurance to wear him down first. It makes him wonder--quietly, never out loud--if Jiraiya-sensei was right and he can’t beat Sasuke without using the bijuu.

And that--that’s not how Naruto wants to fight Sasuke, with his mind clouded with anger, using a power that’s not his own, because how will he ever get through to Sasuke if that’s the case?

Questions for another day because Naruto aches all over and after a cup of instant ramen, he’s going to bed. He’ll do laundry in the morning when his calves aren’t threatening to tear away from the rest of his legs.

Except sleep will have to wait because someone has broken into his apartment and left the most awesome flower arrangement Naruto has ever seen sitting on his bed with a small note poking out of the side.

Smile, the note reads in familiar writing. Naruto does.


End file.
